r.t. is on t.v.

behold my mother's uncle (does that make him my great-uncle?), r. thurman cagle, in his television debut.  my cousins still drive from okc to gilmer to purchase their vehicles from this dealership.  guess you stick with what works.

2009 OKC Arthritis Walk

Hey everyone, the 2009 OKC Arthritis Walk is coming up!  Please come join our team as we raise money and walk in support of arthritis research, treatment, and education.  Last year we did the walk in College Station and it was encouraging and a lot of fun, and we are both looking forward to this year!  

Some quick event details:

When: Saturday, May 30th, 2009 (Time TBA.  It will probably be in the morning, though.)

Where: Stars & Stripes Park, Oklahoma City (link goes to Google Map)

What: Choose from a 1- or 3-mile walk route and enjoy the food, fun, and festivities!  

Sweet, I wanna walk with you guys!  How do I sign up? Go to ourteam page and join our team!

I live out of town but want to come in for the Walk.  Where should I stay? Very exciting!  Well, we have room in our apartment for a couple of folks, and there are several hotels near the park, as well as others near our apartment.   

Aw shucks, I can't make it this year.  Can I still donate to your team?  Of course!  You can go to our team page and donate thru the secure site, or you can send us money directly and we'll add your name to our donor list.  (Yes, it's all tax-deductible.)

I heard that last year your team had some sweet shirts.  Where can I get one? We have a CafePress store where you can buy arthritis-related apparel that we've created, and we have new designs being posted all the time.  All the proceeds go toward supporting arthritis research, treatment, and education.  (If things go really well, maybe we'll even start our own 501(c)3 someday!)

What about your blog?  Is that thing still active? Yes, we still have our blog (JOINTogether4RA.blogspot.com ), though we admit that we've been neglecting it the last few months. However, we've made some new friends in Blogger and are experiencing a renewed interest in documenting our journey and experience with RA.  Stay tuned for an updated design and new content!

If you have any questions about anything, please don't hesitate to write or call.  We are seriously excited about this year's walk and hope you can make it.  As people begin to sign up and we begin to get an idea about how many people will be attending, we will send out further emails with any additional info about things such as afterparties, cookouts, etc.  

the wonders of google

i know i haven't posted anything in a while...working 3 jobs and having a new puppy don't seem to allow much time for blogging.  

and so, in the tradition of brevity, here's a link to a great little article about some of the handy/cool/wonderful things google gives us each day.  for free.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/technology/personaltech/26pogue.html?_r=1&em

i didn't know about the flu watch, but it is seriously handy/cool.  

book club - week 1

for several weeks/months gabriele and i have both noticed that we've been having the same conversation with several of our friends, colleagues, and clients regarding the face of the Church in our world. we're almost never the ones that have brought up the topic, and sometimes we haven't even really said anything at all before the conversation turns towards it, but it is increasingly apparent that we're not the only ones dwelling on the issue.

we thought it might be cool if everyone got together and had the conversation together, in the same place, at the same time. and so, last week we started meeting with some friends to continue the discussion. since we had recently read rob bell's book velvet elvis: repainting the christian faith and felt like it was also saying the same sort of thing, we figured a good way to start would be to have a little book club.

our first time together was simply four of us eating chips and guacamole and queso, telling stories about college pranks and laughing and complaining and struggling and sharing our experiences in the church. after about three hours we actually started discussing the book itself. it was a wonderful time.

the essence of the conversation the first night was largely about how the Church has really messed things up for jesus. he came preaching a gospel of love and it's been turned into a gospel of rules; selflessness and humility into selfishness and piety. and to make matters worse, it seems the church knows they've done it. they (we?) have knowingly drawn divisive lines in the sand and said "we're over here and they are over there."

and so, whoever may be reading this, please see the hurt in the world - the poor, the rich, the hungry, the glutton, the innocent, the guilty... and see that things need to change. be thankful that love is more healing than ignorance is hurtful. be inspired by grace and love, and believe that things can return to being collaborative and unified. i know that things can be better again.

funny facebook

i was playing around with facebook this evening and got the idea to start "classifying" all my friends into the following categories:

• leander (high school)
• georgetown naz 
• minnesota
• SNU (undergrad or when i was teaching, or if you went there)
• Grad School / Life Counseling Center
• family
• brenham
• other friends (that i know via gabriele or some other connection altogether)

it was really an interesting and difficult project.  as i scrolled thru my friend list (259 of them), my memories of everyone started to blur together, and it became difficult to remember who i knew when.  it was especially difficult for people that i knew during the years i've moved (1992, 1996, 2008, and pretty much every year during college).  did i go to church and college with them?  wait...did i go to high school with them...or middle school?  or, did i know them when i was in high school but they lived somewhere else, then later we were friends again?  

a really cool tool that i've found to visually illustrate the interconnectedness of friends is the "friend wheel" on facebook.  you can see mine if you go to the 'boxes' tab on my profile.  very nifty.